Description

Profile

• Name: Arjan (46), Huibert (44) and Adwin (40) Breure
• City: Klaaswaal, the Netherlands
• Function: Company owners
• Hectares: more than 800 hectares/year

The Breure contracting firm: from father to sons

The story of the three Breure brothers is a tale of a beautiful family tradition. The first steps were taken in 1923 in the Hoeksche-Waard region. After the war, the three sons of the Breure family took over the business and expanded it. In 1980, son Ad Breure and his wife took over the farm activities from his father Arie and his two brothers. Eventually, in 2009, Ad’s three sons Arjan, Huibert and Adwin joined the business as the most recent generation.

That’s what we call passing on experience from father to son.

Today, the three brothers run the company together. The tasks are neatly divided: Arjan takes care of the daily planning, Huibert takes care of the administration and Adwin manages the colleagues in the workshop and in the field and is also one of the drivers on the AVR Puma.

Over the years, they have invested heavily in agricultural equipment. They use it both for their own farm and for contract work.

The three brothers’ most recent investment is an AVR Puma 4.0. This machine joins the Breure brothers’ AVR fleet consisting of an AVR Puma 3 (2018), an AVR Puma+ (2014), and an AVR Quadra.

Arjan: "In our opinion, the Puma remains the best investment. We like the authentic concept of this self-propelled harvester: a solid, high-quality four-row harvester with a nice big bunker that offers the necessary capacity. Even the most recent Puma stays true to its basic concept of simplicity, although it has, at the same time, also made some excellent progress over the years."

The ACC digging unit is the perfect example:

Adwin: "When using the ACC digging unit, you can even choose to switch between harvesting with or without diabolos within the same parcel of land, which in our case is mainly on old sea clay. In very wet conditions, we usually lift the diabolos to prevent the ridges from crushed, and vice versa, we always use the diabolos in a drier area. We can choose to switch at any moment and can do so very comfortably from the cabin.

Another absolute asset of the Puma harvester is the “Varioweb”. I think this is one of the Puma’s best features. With this flexible cleaning system, you can decide how much cleaning capacity you need, again depending on the harvesting conditions. These two factors combined allow you to save time and harvest longer. Sometimes even up to a day."

Adwin: "You also get peace of mind as a driver. All harvesting functions can be controlled with the joystick and through a simple touch screen. The cameras provide an excellent view of the harvesting process. When unloading while driving, the truck can drive nicely next to the harvester, while I can still focus on the harvesting process. I can honestly say, having harvested about 3000 hectares in total myself, that saving time is so valuable. This big machine is even excellent for smaller plots. We can get it started anywhere very smoothly."

Huibert: "I agree. At busy times, I help out as backup driver. So I drive the Puma less often than Adwin, and yet I can handle it easily. Harvesting is straightforward and operating the machine is intuitive."

Adwin: "We also had the AVR Connect option added to our Puma. The biggest advantage is that we can remotely monitor the harvesting process and the yield measurements. As such, we try to work even more accurately and efficiently for our customers. This does not only save the customer’s time and resources, but also our own. Win-win!"

"The harvesting goes smoothly, and in addition, we save a lot of time and money when it comes to maintenance. Many components have been developed with easy interchangeability in mind. The open construction ensures that we can quickly replace a component, such as the digging webs.”

Arjan: “The dealer network has also significantly improved over the last few years. Our dealer Kraakman is well represented and has plenty of branches. Thanks to their central, digital warehouse, you can now also order spare parts from other branches, so we never have to wait for long if we need any.”

Arjan: "When it comes to storing our harvest, we use an AVR Cobra store loader, an AVR twin conveyor, and an AVR CTK 1050. Simplicity of use is clearly the biggest advantage here. The machines are easy to operate and move. They are nicely attuned to each other and are able to work together, as one storage line. In the past, with other crop handling machinery, the line sometimes stopped working. With the current AVR line, that issue has been solved."

Huibert: "And capacity, that's also a big advantage. We can clearly see that in the storing process: it takes considerably less time."

Adwin: "That's right. Our previous store loader had a 70 cm belt width, but the current Cobra store loader has an 80 cm belt width, and therefore has more capacity, which makes the storing process faster. We usually store harvests for ourselves. As a contracting firm, our customers mainly rely on us as harvesting specialists. We have the knowledge and the right machines to take care of everything for them, and we are happy to do so."

Arjan: “During the planting season we rely - in addition to our GE-Force and Multivator cultivators - on our AVR Ceres 400, a four-row planter which has served us well for many years now. If we decide to replace it, its latest successor, the Ceres 440, could make a great investment. It can also be connected to our digital AVR Connect platform. This way, we can coordinate the planting and harvesting process even better in the future, as well as the yield measurements."

The best life lesson according to the Breure brothers:

"We try to honour the way of thinking of our father Ad. He was progressive and visionary. With his simple but sturdy AVR Quadra, he first covered a smaller farm with actually too little acreage for this kind of machine, but he saw where all of this was going. Dad ensured an increase in scale, and thus a growth of the company on all fronts. We are proud and grateful that we were able to expand our company together with him. It is a pity that he is no longer with us. We learned a lot from him, and we try to keep his philosophy in mind."